55 



III. Prairie Area East of Charleston, Station III 



This prairie area is about two miles east of Charleston along the 

 "Big Four" railway track. There were two colonies here. One, sub- 

 station a, was on low black-soil prairie just west of the first north and 

 south road crossing the railway track east of Charleston. This was 

 largely a colony of the large-leaved rosin-weed, Silphimn terehinthi- 

 naceum. The second colony, substation h, was a mile and a half di- 

 rectly east of substation a, and half a mile east of the second north and 

 south road east of Charleston. 



Substation or "station" a was originally far out upon the black soil 

 prairie; h, on the other hand, is of special interest because it was origi- 

 nally wooded, has been cleared and maintained as a railroad right-of- 

 way, and contains today, therefore, a practically unique mixture of for- 

 est and prairie plants and animals, with the prairie kinds dominating. 

 The soil, lighter in color than the black soil prairie, is representative of 

 the wooded regions. This colony has every appearance of a cleared 

 forest area invaded by prairie organisms. 



The animals at station a were not studied, and die only record is 

 that of the black blister-beetle, Bpicauta pennsyhanica (No. 119), 

 which was abundant on the flowers of Silphimn terebinthinaceum. 



At station h excavation was necessary to' lower the road-bed, and 

 upon the disturbed soil thus thrown up along the track the prairie veg- 

 etation had become established. The general appearance of this region 

 IS shown m plates VIII and IX. Here grew large quantities of rosin- 

 weed (Silphium terebinthinaceum) and blue stem (Andropogon) ; in 

 places_ upon high ground, indeed, this prairie grass was dominant. 

 Associated with it was the flowering spurge, Buphorbia corollata, as 

 seen m Plate VIII. The forest near by is shown in the background. 

 This same forest and grass area is shown in the background and mid- 

 dle of Plate IX, and in the foreground of the same picture is shown 

 the mixture of prairie and forest plants. Here are hickory sprouts, 

 crab-apple, grape, sumac, and smilax, intermingled with Silphium', 

 blue stem, and Lactuca canadensis. Not all of these appear in the 

 photograph, but they were present in some parts of the colony. 



The collections here (Nos. 58-62 and 175) are as follows: 



Leather-colored Grasshopper Schistocera alutacea 59 



Black-horned Meadow Cricket CBcanthus nigricornis 62 



Meadow Grasshopper Orchelimum vulgar c 175 



Soldier-beetle Chauliognathus pennsvlvanicns 175 



Spotted Grape-beetle Pelidnota punctata ' 58 



Black Blister-beetle Bpicauta pennsyhanica 



' (Sta. Ill, fl) iiQ 



